Studies in Irian Languages, Part II

The Meyah language is spoken by approximately 20,000 people. They live in traditional villages and
government Desa^ along the coastal plains of the Northeast Bird*s Head peninsula of Irian Jaya,
including sections of the Amban peninsula in Manokwari, and in the northern and southern slopes of
the Arfak mountains. Other names and spellings that have been used for Meyah are: Mansibaber^
[Wirz 1923), Meah, Meax and Meakh (Grimes 1984). The current spelling of Meyah is according to
the orthography proposed by Gravelle (1990 and 1991). Meyah is classified as a Papuan language and
part of the East Bird's Head Phylum (Voorhoeve 1977).

Although there are several local varieties of Meyah spoken within the regions defined above, the
only distinct dialect is Moskona. There are approximately 8,000 Moskona living on the lower slopes
of the southern Arfak mountains. Meyah and Moskona have a 90% cognacy and a nearly identical
grammar and phonology. However vast differences in the pronunciation of words makes the two
dialects mutually unintelligible (Gravelle 1999). The name Meyah is most likely derived from the
Mpur (Kebar) word ma-ye 'those who are outside* (Ode 1999). Meyah and Moskona speakers do not
generally refer to themselves by those respective names. They are a clan oriented society therefore
what they consider to be their clan name and language name is often synonymous. Meyah shows
close genetic relations with its Sough neighbor, and has a cognacy rate of about 30% with Sough
(Reesink 1996). The Hatam and Mpur languages that border Meyah to the southeast and west
respectively, are more distant with a cognacy rate of about 5%.

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ISSN 0126 -2874

NUSA

LINGUISTIC STUDIES OF INDONESIAN
AND OTHER LANGUAGES IN INDONESIA

VOLUME 47, 2000

STUDIES IN IRIAN LANGUAGES

PART II

Edited by
GER P. REESINK